If you plan on majoring in public policy, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #113 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
College Factual looked at 99 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Public Policy Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 6,430 degrees in public policy during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Your choice of public policy school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Public Policy School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Public Policy Schools list to help you make the college decision.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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Best Schools for Public Policy in the United States
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the public policy degree levels they offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Harvard University is a great option for students interested in a degree in public policy. Located in the city of Cambridge, Harvard is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #6 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Harvard is a great university overall.
There were approximately 193 public policy students who graduated with this degree at Harvard in the most recent year we have data available. Public Policy degree recipients from Harvard University earn a boost of approximately $27,424 over the average income of public policy graduates.
University of Chicago is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in public policy. UChicago is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago. A Best Colleges rank of #2 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UChicago is a great university overall.
There were roughly 411 public policy students who graduated with this degree at UChicago in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the public policy major at University of Chicago make $11,692 above the typical college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
It's hard to beat Duke University if you wish to pursue a degree in public policy. Duke is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Durham. A Best Colleges rank of #7 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Duke is a great university overall.
There were roughly 269 public policy students who graduated with this degree at Duke in the most recent year we have data available. Those public policy students who get their degree from Duke University receive $10,067 more than the typical public policy student.
It is difficult to beat Princeton University if you want to pursue a degree in public policy. Located in the city of Princeton, Princeton is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #10 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Princeton is a great university overall.
There were approximately 221 public policy students who graduated with this degree at Princeton in the most recent data year. Those public policy students who get their degree from Princeton University earn $13,369 more than the standard public policy student.
Located in the small city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. This university ranks 3rd out of 142 schools for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were about 73 public policy students who graduated with this degree at Cornell in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the public policy major at Cornell University earn $16,514 more than the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #18 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UC Berkeley is a great university overall.
There were roughly 114 public policy students who graduated with this degree at UC Berkeley in the most recent data year. Public Policy degree recipients from University of California - Berkeley get an earnings boost of about $28,072 above the typical earnings of public policy graduates.
Carnegie Mellon is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Pittsburgh. A Best Colleges rank of #9 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Carnegie Mellon is a great university overall.
There were approximately 75 public policy students who graduated with this degree at Carnegie Mellon in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the public policy degree program at Carnegie Mellon University get $15,265 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
UPenn is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Philadelphia. A Best Colleges rank of #4 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UPenn is a great university overall.
There were approximately 31 public policy students who graduated with this degree at UPenn in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #11 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means USC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 199 public policy students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent year we have data available. Those public policy students who get their degree from University of Southern California make $8,597 more than the standard public policy grad.
Brown is a large private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Providence. A Best Colleges rank of #21 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Brown is a great university overall.
There were roughly 127 public policy students who graduated with this degree at Brown in the most recent data year. Public Policy degree recipients from Brown University receive an earnings boost of about $4,967 above the average income of public policy graduates.
Located in the small city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.
There were about 45 public policy students who graduated with this degree at Northwestern in the most recent year we have data available. Graduates who receive their degree from the public policy program earn an average of $40,701 in the first couple years of working.
Located in the city of Chapel Hill, UNC Chapel Hill is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 2nd out of 93 colleges for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were approximately 190 public policy students who graduated with this degree at UNC Chapel Hill in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the public policy program report average early career wages of $39,751.
Located in the city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 1st out of 57 schools for overall quality in the state of Michigan.
There were approximately 225 public policy students who graduated with this degree at U-M in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the public policy degree program at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor get $3,957 above the typical graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Washington, GWU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 2nd out of 8 colleges for overall quality in the state of District of Columbia.
There were roughly 69 public policy students who graduated with this degree at GWU in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the public policy major at George Washington University make $21,725 more than the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).